By Jim Hook
The Public Opinion
PLEASANT HALL, Pa. — Prompt action saved a three-foot monitor lizard and a large snapping turtle from a mobile home fire in Pleasant Hall.
The 9 p.m. blaze destroyed a single-wide mobile home at 6599 Upper Strasburg Road on Sunday. Four people are homeless. Nobody was home at the time of the fire.
Pleasant Hall Volunteer Fire Company firefighters rescued the animals from heavy smoke. When the homeowner did not show up after a while, Deputy Chief Tom Rine decided he couldn’t just let the reptiles sit outside in the cold.
Rine called Franklin County Humane Police Officer Floyd “Buck” Hessler.
Hessler said noticed that the firefighters did not get too close to the Nile Monitor. They had all their fingers. The lizard has a reputation of grabbing hold with a jaw strong enough to crush bone and take a finger. A monitor can grow to six feet.
Hessler put a hoop around the lizard’s neck. “He was kicking and thrashing when they took him out,” Rine said.
Hessler took the lizard, turtle and a snake to the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter. He called shelter director Jennifer Merletti at 11:30 p.m. and in a few minutes they were giving oxygen to the lizard.
Hessler, his hands protected with welding gloves, held the lizard while Merletti administered oxygen through a cone over the lizard’s head., he said.
“We kept oxygen on it until 1:30 in the morning, until it came back around and got its energy back,” Hessler said.
The scales on the lizard were peeling, so it was taken to a veterinarian, Hessler said. The lizard and turtle are to be released back to their owner James Dahm. The 17-year-old turtle weighed 12 pounds and had a 12-inch diameter shell. It was kept in a large aquarium.
Dahm said he, his two young children and fiancé lost almost everything in the fire, including family photographs on the home computer. Fire burned the contents of the living room and smoke damaged the remainder of the home.
“I lost a lot of memories,” Dahm said. “We didn’t have insurance, so we’re screwed. All our clothes smell like smoke. Put enough vinegar in the (wash) water, and it will come out.”
The family is staying with Dahm’s mother in the Shippensburg area.
The American Red Cross is assisting them with their basic needs, according to Allen White Jr., Emergency Services Director of the Franklin County chapter.
“If it wouldn’t have been for extension of unemployment I’d be really screwed,” Dahm said. “I don’t have a job right now. That’s my first priority, to get a job.”
He assembled and drove a fork lift at Volvo in Shippensburg for five years before being laid off. His unemployment benefits expire in mid-April. His finance is looking for a job. They are caring for two-year-old Kolya and one-year old Angel.
Finding a place to rent will be difficult, Dahm said. “What am I going to tell the landlord? I just got burned out, and my unemployment runs out in April?”
The $350 vet bill will be Dahm’s responsibility, Hessler said. He asked the community to help.
Two exotic birds perished in the fire, Hessler said. A 30-inch red-tailed boa constrictor, was burned badly and died Monday at the vet’s office, according to Hessler and Dahm. Three cats were unaccounted for. A corn snake died in the fire, Dahm said.
The fire apparently started in the living room, Rine said. The cause is under investigation. Dahm said he has been told the cause was electrical.
The first firefighters found heavy smoke showing from the home, Rine said.
“We had difficulty getting into the place,” Rine said. “The security measures for the animals made it difficult to get in. We were able to force open the door, and it flashed on us.”
The fire was under control within 10 minutes of their arrival, he said. Overhaul operations took nearly two hours.
Neighbors cautioned Rine about the animals in the mobile home. He got on the radio and cautioned his crew not to knock over anything so snakes would not get loose. One firefighter who was putting on his gear started taking it off.
“It definitely deterred a few people,” said Rine, who is also a professional firefighter in the Washington, D.C., area. “In 25 years of fire service it’s the first time I’ve had that kind of situation.”
Copyright 2011 Public Opinion
All Rights Reserved